Eureka Hotel

Site of Bentley's Hotel, Eureka, University of Ballarat Historical Collection

On 18 November 1854, James Bentley, Thomas Farrell and William Hance were convicted of the manslaughter of James Scobie, a Scottish miner who had been found dead near James Bentley’s Eureka Hotel on 7 October 1854. Bentley, and his employees Farrell and Hance, had been tried and acquitted previously for this murder, but due to the outcry on the Ballarat Diggings, the insinuation of police corruption, and the subsequent riot and burning of the Eureka Hotel on 17 October 1854, there had been cause for a new trial. [1]

In the News

BALLAARAT RIOTS – Bentley’s Hotel - Mr Humffray moved, pursuant to notice, That a select Committee be appointed to enquire into the claims for compensation arising out of the losses alleged to have been sustained at the time of or in connection with the destruction of Bentley’s Hotel, on Ballaarat, with power to take evidence and examine all books, petitions, reports, or other documents relating thereto, now in the hands of the Government, and that the following gentlemen be appointed to act on the Committee – Mr Haines, Mr Greeves, Mr Stawell, Mr Pyke, Mr Michie, Mr Horne, Mr Grant, Mr Brooke, Mr Sargood, and the Mover. [3]

Ballarat's Oldest Residents

One question asked at a meeting of Ballarat Historical Society was: "Who is the oldest living miner in Ballarat?"

Mr. N. F. Spielvogel (president) said that he was Mr. Joseph Oringe, Ligar street, who was 97 years of age. As a lad he was employed as a whim boy at Post Office mine, Ballarat East.

Another question sought the identity of the oldest industry in Ballarat. This was stated to be Foord's bacon works, founded by John Foord in 1856 on its present site in Eureka street, opposite where Bentley's Hotel stood. That hotel was burned in sensational circumstances prior to Eureka.

The second oldest firm was stated to bee that of John Hollway, tinsmith, Armstrong street, established in 1857.[4]